


The List

by ultrahotpink



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Angst, Multi, Spying, Subterfuge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 10:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8283067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultrahotpink/pseuds/ultrahotpink
Summary: Frank asks Emma to give him a list of the hospital personnel.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [middlemarch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/gifts).



> This is based on two prompts, 'What have you done.' and 'Don't lie to me', given to me by my friend middlemarch on Tumblr. Enjoy!

Emma was folding bandages in the linen closet, waiting for Frank to finish with, well, whatever he was doing here. It’s wasn’t as if she was privy to the goings on of the Knights of the Golden Circle, although… Her hand ran over the paper in her apron pocket. 

It seemed an innocent enough thing for Frank to ask for, merely a list of the major hospital personnel. What could be the harm in giving him a list of names? The list of names that she began to know better and better. The names and the people attached to them that made this war a whole lot more confusing.

Frank slipped into the closet, smiling at the sight of her.

“How’s my little nurse today?”

Emma frowned. Frank would try to make light of the work she was doing. Try to distract from what he’d asked her to do. Her hand had trembled as she wrote the names of all of the senior hospital personnel. And now? Frank was standing in front of her cool as a cucumber, but then, nothing ever seemed to shake him. Perhaps that was why he was doing the work that he was doing. 

“Uneasy, if you must know.” She let out a shaking sigh.

Frank put a hand at her waist, the other reaching up to caress her cheek. “What could be troubling my girl?”

She inhaled though her nose. “I don’t like it Frank, you asking me for the list. It feels wrong.”

His eyes widened. “Did you get it?”

Emma stepped back out of Frank’s embrace, putting her hands on her hips. “Is that all I am to you? A source of information?”

Frank advanced again, this time wrapping both hands around her waist. “You know very well that I count the seconds until we can be together. It nearly breaks my heart every time I have to leave you.” He kissed her forehead.

Emma tensed in his arms wiggling back. “Suppose I didn’t get it.”

Frank stared at her, his expression suddenly going blank before smiling another half-smile. “You wouldn’t do that, would you? You couldn’t let me down, now could you, Em? After everything I’m trying to do for our side, our boys.”

Emma felt a flash of shame. Of course Frank was just doing this for the greater good. And the sooner the war was over, the less dying soldiers on both sides. It was only that lately she had begun to feel uneasy about his visits. And now with Alice’s frequent visits to the hospital? What information could they possibly get from one little hospital? Whatever it was, it was all starting to feel a little too blurry. A little too dangerous.

She stepped back, grabbing the paper from her pocket. “Here, take it. But you should go Frank. If anyone should notice that I’m gone-“

“Of course Darlin’.” He kissed her on the cheek and she opened the door.

The Chaplain was standing on the other side of the door, his blue eyes piercing hers.

Frank took the paper from her, his hand lingering a fraction of a moment longer than Emma would have liked, given that Chaplain Hopkins was staring at them. 

“Thank you for the recommendations Miss. I’ll be sure to pass them on to my Mother.” Frank tucked the piece of paper into his vest pocket and moved past the Chaplain. 

A flash of panic ran through Emma. How much did he hear? She folded her hands in front of her tightly. Her nerves always did show in her hands.

“What did the dentist want?” Henry asked.

“Not much. Just the name of my doctor, which I gave him.”

“And that’s all that was written on the paper that you gave him? What have you really done?" The Chaplain asked in a low quiet voice stepping into the doorway of the cupboard. Blocking her escape with his tall imposing figure and broad shoulders.

She took a deep breath, and plastered on her best demure smile. "Done? I'm sorry Chaplain I don't know what-"

"Don’t lie to me." While his tone was still soft she could tell by the furrow in his brow and the edge in his voice that he suspected something.

Emma had known from the age of fourteen that she had possessed a way about her that made the boys get a little tongue tied. But the Chaplain was no boy. He was a very perceptive, very angry man. 

She swallowed. "I know how that must have looked a woman alone with a man she hardly knows, but his mother is ill, and he asked for the name of our family doctor."

"This is a hospital full of doctors. Why not recommend one of them?"

"I believe they're rather too busy cutting limbs off to see a civilian. Our doctor has seen us from infancy. He's very good." Emma said.

Henry crossed his arms in front of his torso. "Why did he not ask one of the doctors for a recommendation?"

"Perhaps he might have. I don't know the man well enough." She knew him better than anyone, and wasn’t it just like Frank to leave her to talk her way out of a difficult situation.

"His hand certainly seemed to linger with some familiarity on yours-"

"He was grateful for the information. As I said, his mother is ill. Just what pray tell are you accusing me of? I believe I have a right to know." She didn’t have a right to know, but she hoped that her forthright indignation would be enough for him to let her be.

He flashed a smile before his face dropped again. "I saw your sister talking to him as well-"

"So? I'm not her keeper. She may speak to whomever she wishes."

“She is not an army nurse, nor a volunteer one either. She has no business here, nor your dentist friend Bill Griffin or whatever his real name might be.”

What did he know? What could he have heard? And what would he do? “Just say it. Say what you really suspect.”

Henry closed the door behind him and was now an inch away from Emma. So close that Emma could sense that he was not just the calm and controlled preacher he pretended to be. She had only seen him like this once before, just after they found Tom. And now he was in front of her again, so close, that he might be just like any other man. No God between them, only a treasonous secret.

“I will tell you plainly, that I believe that the dentist is a spy, that your sister is a spy, and that you are aiding them in their work, which also makes you, by association a traitor. Do you have any notion of what that might mean?” He searched her eyes. “It might not be the custom to hang female traitors, but I can assure you that what happens to women in prison, what would happen to a female traitor in prison would make you long for the noose.”

Emma felt tears begin to well up in her eyes and dropped her gaze. “You think I don’t know what it’s like for other confederate girls like me? How they’re treated even in the streets by your fellow Yankees? The indignities that my friends and other girls have suffered since the war started? Make your threats Chaplain, but I am here to help nurse my friends and neighbours. If you can find some fault with that, then perhaps you aren’t the Christian you profess yourself to be.” Emma forced herself to meet Henry’s gaze. “Now let me by.”

His gazed fell and he reached out, his hand lightly touching her forearm. “Forgive me Miss Green. It was unkind to hurl unfounded and unjust accusations at you.” His eyes met hers again, this time with an added softness. “But if some part of what I suspect is true and someone other than myself becomes privy to it, it’s only… I believe your patients as well as the rest of the staff would miss you.”

Emma felt a tingle where Henry’s hand lay. She looked handsome face and earnest expression and felt another pang of guilt twinge in her chest. He was right, and she should be the one apologizing. While she was here to help her confederate brethren, she also did not wish him or any of the hospital staff ill. The Chaplain was right to suspect her, for she had wronged him, and everyone in the hospital by giving Frank that list. Perhaps nothing would come of it. But if it did, she would never forgive herself.

“It’s alright. If I were you I would perhaps think the same of someone like me. But I hope you know, how fond I’m growing of everyone here.” Emma moved her arm, removing Henry’s light touch. “I must go. Private Rose is in need of a dressing change.” Emma moved past him opening the door.

“Please, take care of yourself.” He spoke, his words stopping her.

A warm shiver ran down her body. “Of course.”

Emma exited the linen closet, moving quickly back to the ward.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Please feel free to let me know what you think!


End file.
